A crescent moon hung high in the starry sky above Matopos village in Zimbabwe, while an eagle owl was hooting on the thatch roof as Peggy Masuku crept out of her clay-brick home. It was 4am, the hour before daybreak, and two weeks before the competition she had put every fibre of her being into. My Beautiful Home is a project that seeks to rekindle the ancient art of decorating and beautifying rural homesteads using materials, colours and pigments gathered from the earth. Prizes are practical and useful: shovels, rainwater tanks, three-legged iron pots, day-old chicks, and even a hive and beekeeping course for regional winners. But as judging day…